Almost Family Earnings Preview

Almost Family (NAS: AFAM) came in under analysts' estimates last quarter but now has a chance to fix things. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Aug. 3. Almost Family is a regionally focused provider of home health services. It has two reportable segments, Visiting Nurse and Personal Care.

What analysts say:

Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Almost Family, with six of seven analysts rating it hold.

Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $84.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 1.4% from the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.66 per share. Estimates range from $0.61 to $0.73.

What our community says:CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 97.2% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Almost Family and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 321 posts in the past 30 days. Almost Family has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community's assessment.

Management:Almost Family's profit has risen year over year by an average of 11.8%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q1

Q4

Q3

Q2

Gross Margin

52.8%

54.6%

53.9%

54.9%

Operating Margin

11.6%

13.9%

15.7%

16.4%

Net Margin

6.9%

8.3%

9.4%

9.7%

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